FLUSHING,
NY, August 12, 2013 - Since the mid-1980s, unrestrained household spending has
damaged American family finances—despite the fact that globalization and
technological change have caused consumer prices to fall widely, says Queens
College sociologist Joseph Nathan Cohen. In his paper, “The Myth of America’s Culture
of Consumerism: Policy May Help Drive American Household‘s Fraying Finances,”
which Cohen presented at the 108th Annual Meeting of the American
Sociological Association, he examines the factors that keep American families
from tightening their belts.

A brief
summary:

- Household
spending on goods that fulfill pleasure, self-esteem, or social status needs
have generally been falling, including personal care items, apparel, home
furnishings, and automobiles.

- However,
consumption spending has risen most in four product categories that shape
families’ health, safety, and economic viability: health care, education,
housing, and commuting costs.

- Prices
in these four product markets have greatly outpaced both wages and prices in
general.

- Americans
may be systematically pressed to overspend on housing because access to better
schools, public services, and transportation infrastructure varies considerably
across communities, and better-heeled communities often restrict affordable
housing developments. Americans may face a relatively high well-being penalty
for living in more modestly-priced homes.

- Compared
to other highly-developed countries, the U.S. does considerably less to control
the personal financial burden borne by households to ensure access to these
products and services essential to well-being.

- Soaring
tuition and health care costs are not the principal drivers of household
financial distress, but they constitute the fastest-growing problem.

- Cohen
argues that our penchant to blame household spending problems on wastefulness
or frivolities obscures the fact that Americans increasingly face a lose-lose
dilemma in which they must choose between sustainable finances and access to
quality schools, child care, medical care, public safety, and employment
opportunities.

Cohen,
a Canadian with a business background who studied at Princeton (Ph.D.
sociology, 2007), also examines how other countries tackle the provision of
essential services in different and potentially less financially damaging ways.
“Canada’s policies control the personal financial burden of accessing essential
services, which might be why household finances are in better shape there,” he
says.As
it celebrates its 75th year, Queens College enjoys a national
reputation for its liberal arts and sciences and pre-professional programs.
With its graduate and undergraduate degrees, honors programs, and research and
internship opportunities, the college helps its over 20,000 students realize
their potential in countless ways, assisted by an accessible, award-winning
faculty. Located on a beautiful, 77-acre campus in Flushing, the college is
cited each year in the Princeton Review as one of the nation’s100 “Best Value” colleges, thanks to
its outstanding academics, generous financial aid packages, and relatively low
costs. Learn more at www.qc.cuny.edu.

The
American Sociological Association (www.asanet.org),
founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving
sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession,
and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society.

The
paper, “The Myth of America’s Culture of Consumerism: Policy May Help Drive
American Household’s Fraying Finances,” was presented on Sunday, August 11, in
New York City at the American Sociological Association’s 108th Annual
Meeting.

To
obtain a copy of the paper; for assistance reaching the study’s author(s); or
for more information on other ASA presentations, members of the media may
contact Daniel Fowler, ASA’s Media Relations and Public Affairs Officer, at
(202) 527-7885 or pubinfo@asanet.org.
During the Annual Meeting (Aug. 10-13), ASA’s Public Information Office staff
can be reached in the on-site press office, located in the Hilton New York
Midtown’s Clinton Room, at (212) 333-6362 or (914) 450-4557 (cell).

For
more information about the study, members of the media may also contact Maria
Matteo, Queens College, at (718) 997-5593 or maria.matteo@qc.cuny.edu.

Papers
presented at the ASA Annual Meeting are typically working papers that have not
yet been published in peer reviewed journals.

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